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A huge thank you to everyone who has joined us on the closed beta! The playtests have been a lot of fun and very informative about things that we need to fix. The game is coming along fantastically and we're going to have it launched on a proper platform soon.

Also, we're going to be at GDC! Look for us in the expo hall! We'll have stickers of all the playable characters. Come get your favorite!

First, development of the game has been coming along fantastically. In fact...

...we are currently on track for releasing the closed alpha of the game to everyone who backed at the Gifted level or higher. This is actually a step earlier than we originally planned and the game will have the game modes Squishmatch, Team Squishmatch, and Capture The Fridge, with all 5 characters being fully playable, though not polished. For example, Brassica will have the bird's nest in her hair, but no bird yet. We will get that in by the official launch, but we wanted to get the game out to you all first. This is also going to be a chance for you to give us feedback and help us make the game better.

Second, we're trying to get our game distributed on Steam. What does that do for you? Steam provides a lot of resources, such as being able to easily join up with friends, form parties, and makes it really easy to get you all the latest patches to the game. It's an all-around awesome service and helps protect your ownership without inconveniencing you. So, if you could go to our Greenlight page and vote for the game, that would be awesome. Then tell everyone you know to vote for the Greenlight page. If you don't have a steam account and haven't bought a game on Steam, you won't be able to vote for the campaign. Don't worry about that. Just spread the word.

From the beginning, we've promised that we're going to distribute the game on Steam. Steam is great. We love Steam. But we could really use your help. If you can spare the time, vote for Throw Trucks With Your Mind here and share it on ever social media outlet you have. The sooner we get the game on Steam, the sooner we can start bringing all of the closed beta backers into our playtest sessions.

You should go check out that link regardless, because we posted a new trailer for the game there and we worked really hard on it.

That's right! Finally, we've shipped out all the headsets! Thank you all so much for bearing with us. We are currently working on getting automated shipping to Europe set up from the store and we will make a big fuss about that when it's done.

So, how is the game progressing? Well, join us every Thursday at 6PM, Pacific time to see us playtest here. We keep archives of all playtests, regardless of how embarassing the bugs we find, so you can have a look through them now. Currently, there is no sound, but we're working on that. We might be switching to another livestreaming service in the future. We'll post an update if we do.

Lastly, one of my best friends wrote this book. It's brilliant, logical, well-written, a very clever look into the future, and the summary really doesn't do it justice. It's post-apocalyptic, sort of Harry Potter, sort of Ender's Game, sort of Transmetropolitan, and sort of Throw Trucks With Your Mind. His work is dark and gritty, whereas Throw Trucks With Your Mind will distinctly stay in the realm of lighthearted and silly. Go check it out.

It's been a while since there's been an update. The reason is that we kept almost having the international headsets shipped out and thing after thing after thing has gotten in the way of that. We're sorry. As of today, half of the international headsets have been shipped out. We're hoping to get that up to 100% by the end of next week, but we can't promise that it will happen. We're working as fast as possible to get those headsets shipped out.

Now for some cool stuff!

We've started doing weekly internal playtesting of the game, and we had an idea: Why not livestream our playtests? We're going to have 1-hour livestreamed playtests every Thursday at 6PM, Pacific Standard Time. Tune in at http://www.livestream.com/throwtrucks to join us or watch old playtests.

Lat is giving a lecture at Stanford on 10/8 at 3PM at Stanford on the gamification of neurofeedback therapy, a subject he accidentally became an expert on. He'll be talking about the design process behind the game, sources of inspiration, how we refine the fun of a game, and will probably also take a minute to explain everything he hates about the word "gamification." So, if you happen to be in the Palo Alto area, drop by and Lat would be happy to see you:Palo Alto VA Building 53801 Miranda AvePalo Alto, CA 94304